As September draws to a close, we are 4-0. The rest of the year will be a long, drawn out trail of tears, full of frustration, anger, and sadness. There are 80 full pages of MgoBoard threads left, and 40 pages of content. I fear I won't make it through.

This was this month. Hopefully you didn't forget what happened here last week.

Finally, I didn't get through the diaries. There are many great ones, but no good way to page through all of them that I've found. The back half of the year had lots more content, not all of it good. There were quite a few meltdowns that I didn't document, and much uglyness that has been deleted.

Since we're coming up on the new year and all, and I only have boring things to do, I'm going to attempt to recap the year for us. If you feel as though I left a particularly important topic or board thread off, feel free to post it in a comment and I'll add it in.

May was kind of a slow month. I didn't link to the variety of small fights about oversigning, stars, etc.

JUNE

1- Kelvin and Kevin Grady come back into the fold3- I include this link only because of Brian's throwaway line at the end: "Daily continues murdering Detroit papers, this time landing an extensive interview with Toney Clemons" Sadly, the Freep just sat on their interview...10- WLA vs. GBMW blogfight escalates. Topic had GOOD MOTOR but FAILS to resolve CONFLICT PEECEFULY. Also, every month must have the requisite 3* recruit post.29 - Tim Hardaway Jr. commits to michigan30 - Mgoblog's secondary USA soccer craze comes to an end with a loss in the Confed Cup to Brazil

Another slow month. Hopefully I'll get the 2nd half of the year up sometime tomorrow.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Michigan men's
basketball coach John Beilein announced today (Tuesday, Dec. 29) Associate Head
Coach Jerry Dunn will take an indefinite leave of absence from the

Wolverine program due to personal family matters.

"Presently, I have family matters that need my
immediate attention," said Dunn. "Coach Beilein and the University
have been gracious enough to allow me the time needed to do so."

"I fully support Jerry as he continues to focus on
his family at this time," said Beilein. "We will be there and ready
to assist as needed now and when he is ready to return."

Administrative Specialist Jeff Meyer will assume Dunn's
duties during his absence from the program.

[/release]

No word on what the "family matters" are, and I think it's probably best that we don't worry about speculating here. Best wishes to Coach Dunn, and hopefully he can get his family issues squared away ASAP and get back on the hardwood. In tandem with the bad news on Cronin earlier today, it's been a rough stretch for men's basketball.

Hopefully, a couple wins to start the Big Ten season will make us forget about any distractions, and the team can go on a run in the conference. A win against Indiana would go a long way towards restoring good vibes around the program.

Ohio St. Defense vs. BCS Teams
outside of the Big 10, dating back to 2006.

Texas 2006 326
YDS UT started redshirt frosh Colt McCoy

FLA. 2006 370
YDS

WASH. 2007 346
YDS Washington was 4-8

LSU 2007 353
YDS

USC 2008 348
YDS

Texas 2008 468
YDS

USC 2009 313
YDS USC started a true freshman QB

AVG.
360.5 YDS A GAME

Ohio
State won 2 of those games Texas in ’06 and the 4-8 Washington team from ’07. OSU is 2-5 vs. their
last 7 BCS conference opponents from outside the Big 10. They are giving up an
average of 360.5 yds and over 25 pts a game.

EDIT: I also found it interesting that, for a team with such a great rush defense, OSU did not have a single player in the top 70 in sacks, tackles or tackles for loss.

What do you guys think? Is this due to bad offenses? OSU keeping the defense off the field?

The front page of Scout has a picture of Tennessee commit MLB Michael Taylor (3 star on Scout/3 star on Rivals). Rivals shows OLB Darrin Kitchens (2 star on Scout/3 star on Rivals) as a Michigan visitor the weekend of January 8th. Sam Webb on his December 18 Recruiting Round Up on WTKA (part one&part two) indicated that Michigan is now in the hunt for Cincinnati verbal DT Jibreel Black (4 star on Scout/3 star on Rivals) and a 4 star DT currently committed to an ACC school (Darious Cummings, Fre'Shad Hunter, Kelcy Quarles, and Shawn Green are the only players in the Scout database that fit this criteria.) Finally, the Scout premium message board has headlines suggesting that there's a mystery Olineman, currently committed somewhere, that may be considering Michigan. Not to mention the coaching changes at both Notre Dame and Florida that
may put players we on the board have never considered into
consideration.

Adding the new rumors to the previous prospect list gives us at least 14 quality players that we are still recruiting.

This all looks great to me as a fan, but then I question how many of these stars can we fit in the class? Sam Webb states, in the December 18 podcast, with absolute certainty that the class only has room for 26? Which means only one of the above can join us without some departures from the first 25. The trouble with his conviction is that he was the source of the original misinformation that only 25 could join this class.

I believe he is wrong again. As I discovered when researching an earlier diary (NCAA Scholarship Limit Review), you can apply early enrollees to either the current class or the previous class if there is room. We know that Michigan ended up with 21 in the last class, meaning we can apply four of our seven or eight January enrollees to last year's class. So we can provide 25 scholarships for the coming class plus four to the previous class for a total of 29. Technically, we could offer 28 for this coming class, plus four for the previous class, but we could only provide scholarships to 25 of the 28. The extra three offers above the 25 are intended to deal with any non-qualifiers we may have. The 28 number becomes a possibility when rumors that a couple prospects from the original 25 may not qualify. Coach Rodriguez might decide to fill to 28 and assume three will end up in the next class (a la Adrian Witty) as either nonqualifiers or greyshirts.

That means we have four if we don't want to deal with any greyshirts or seven if we want to shoehorn them in. Who would we take? My four/seven would be as follows:

1 - Michael Thornton2 - Sean Parker3 - Tony Grimes4 - Clarence Murphy

5 - Torrian Wilson6 - Big Tex Beachum7 - Rashad Knight

That would make for an amazing finish, that I'm sure most of us would be thrilled with. I realize Thornton is a long shot, but we're in the game. It is just as likely that we will end with a player or two we've not yet heard of.

It is exciting to watch the rebirth of our program!!

Edit: The comments section has really got a lot of great information about some possible snake oil prospects.

I am an admitted Football addict, specifically Michigan Football. As a graduate of the university and lifelong fan, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Michigan h always been my first love, but specifically the football program. While I’m a huge Michigan fan in every sport, with Basketball coming second, Football is by far the most important thing to me. I recently told my friend that I would rather have the 1# recruiting class in football (like, a fricken amazing class..Gardner, Lattimore, Luc etc.) than a Final Four appearance in Basketball. While I’ve thought about the severity of that comment, I still stand by it.

That being said, I’ve been enjoying the basketball season thus far and recently thought about this while watching the MSU – Texas game last night.

What College Football programs have a “twin” in college basketball?

Michigan Football = Kentucky Basketball

I was thinking Ucla or Duke, but settled on Kentucky. Historically successful program, a school that is known for that respective sport. A strong history and one of the sport’s greatest upsets (Texas Western = The Horror). Legendary arena (Rupp = Mich Stadium), classic unis&colors, recent success (past 15 years) has been good but not amazing, and a very impatient and spoiled fanbase. Does the Gillespie era equal RichRod’s? I sure hope not because I want to and am confident that RichRod will make it happen – but at least we’ll have a Calipari like successful season in the possible first season post RichRod.

Notre Dame Football = Duke Basketball

Small, aristocratic private schools. Small towns that are actually pretty shitty (Sorry SB and Durham!) Strong history, classic unis, classic arena/stadiums. Strict academic restrictions. Each program’s chief rival has had great recent success (UNC and USC.) Some recent success by both programs, but they’ve largely been lacking lately. Overhyped recruiting classes dotted with douchebag players that you hate. “Clean Cut” players that are known for over achieving.

I was thinking UCLA here possibly.

Boise State Football = Gonzaga Basketball

Succesful mid major programs that have gone from “Cinderella” to consistently good teams. Crave national respect and spotlight, and they usually prove themselves. It’s tought to get other teams to play them. Northwest based teams. Mid major conferences, so the big stage is where they prove themselves.

Florida Football = UNC Basketball

Great recent success. “Sexy” schools for recruits. National Championships won recently. Tim Tebow is Tyler Hansbrough. Schools almost identical academically.

Oklahoma Football = MSU Basketball

Consistently good programs. Big time conference that they compete to win on a yearly basis. Great Coaches that are usually in the conversation for job openings, yet stay because why would they leave? The theme here is both programs are consistently good despite being not “sexy” in the eyes of recruits. Too many National Championships here recently, but they compete almost yearly and rarely fizzle.